While walking in a park, one morning, I found a Hundred Rupee note on one of the park benches. I picked it up, noted the number and took it home.
In the afternoon the plumber called on me to collect his bill. As I had no other moey at home, I settled his account with the Hundred Rupee note that I had found.
Later I came to know that the plumber paid the note to his milkman to settle his monthly account , who paid it to his tailor for the garments he had made.
The tailor in turn used the money to buy an old sewing machine, from a woman who lives in my neighbourhood. This woman incidentally, had borrowed Hundred Rupees from me sometime back to buy some household appliance. She, remembering that she owed me a Hundred Rupees, came and paid the debt.
I recognized the note as the one that I had found on the park bench, and on careful examination, I discovered that the note was counterfeit.
How much was lost in the whole transaction and by whom ?
(In reply to
The solution by Charlie)
Charlie: Now, what value do you assign to a counterfeit note ? Irrespective of whether it is a 100 Rupees note or a 500 Rupees note. It's value I suppose always should be considered to be equal to zero.
So, when the milkman paid the tailor for the garments he had made, he was at a loss of 100 rupees, that is you can say (-100). After that he (the tailor), used the same note (whose value we are assuming to be equal to zero) to purchase a sewing machine for himself worth Rupees 100. So, here he has gained 100 Rupees, that is (+100).
So, now the net loss or gain will be calculated by adding the two values, that is (-100) and (+100), which will give us the result 0, which implies no profit, no loss.
re: The solution
